Europe and Balance Pt. II

It's pretty undisputed that Ukraine and Turkey are the best two nations to pick in Europe+

Any team game will have these two picked first almost as a matter of course and most 1v1s will have one of these nations picked (so much so that there is now a 'No Ukraine/Turkey' rule that players seem to be using.

Buffing Ukraines income (and thus starting cost) has been a popular idea and yet this would be a major breach of the realism which makes the game as compelling as it is. So how do we balance Ukraine and Turkey without impacting on realism? Easy, we just look at what makes them so overpowered.

Turkey is overpowered because it is easily the most populous country in Europe+ and its reinforcements reflect that. It has 39 reinforcements, the next largest nation is UK with 28. It's strengths lay in leveraging it's starting reinforcements (and infantry) to either outexpand its opponent or simply to zerg them down with an unstoppable mega stack.
How do we solve this? We can't reduce its reinforcements because it IS the biggest nation. However we could split it into two smaller nations and add more cities to each.
It's most divided into Agaen and Anatolia. Agaen is Istanbul, Bursa, Izmir and Antalya. Anatolia is the rest. I would add more cities to Anatolia such as Konya, Keyseri, Gazientep, Trabzon. They don't have to be big, but there is plenty of choice for extra cities.
The result is that Agaen Turkey would have 24 reinforcements, the same as Spain. Anatolia (with its current cities) would have 15, the same as Volga. Turkey would be as strong as every other european nation, albeit a bit cheaper... of course since I have a bit of foresight, a cheap 24 pop nation would make Agaen stronger than Ukarine is now... so to avoid that we'd need to buff Agaen income a bit.

Ukraine is overpowered because it has similar reinforcements to a big western nation but much lower income. The result is that Ukraine costs very little to pick and so can leverage this by expanding expotentially as it is not limited by cost nor reinforcements. Buffing Ukraines income is a sensible choice but many players feel it would ruin the realism. Similarly it has a population that justifies its reinforcements. So how do we solve this? By limiting Ukraines expansion.
Russia is not a poor nation, nor is it deserted. Russia Centrals ingame population is listed as 38 million. Ukraines is listed as 42 million. How is it then that Russia Central has only 13 reinforcements and Ukraine has 21? It's completely out of whack.
We solve Ukraine by making Russia Central the power it deserves to be. Buff Voronezh and Yaroslavl, add one or two more cities like Bryansk, Tula, Kursk and increase it's overall income.
The desired result is that Russia Central will be worth more as a starting selection and if not picked it will be defended by infantry and so requires Ukraine to spend more to take it over.

Please ponder this, it's a real shame when threads like REVERT TIMER FONT CHANGE gets more reaction than a genuine attempt to improve the game.